Family has to come first.
That’s the decision made by a pair of Section II boys basketball coaches in the last week, with the men having something else in common: Each inherited a struggling program and lifted it back to respectability and beyond.
Garry Horne coached Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons in Schenectady for four-plus seasons and led the Golden Knights to the 2008 sectional Class A title and two other semifinal appearances. He was 48-57 overall but 43-26 in his final three seasons. Horne took over the team midway through the 2004-05 season and started with 31 losses in 36 games before the huge turnaround.
"It’s tough to give up something you love, but I’ve got some things I need to take care of," Horne told The Daily Gazette. "I’ve got to take care of my mom, who is staying with us now, and I have a son that I would like to watch play."
Justin Horne is a sophomore guard at Guilderland, where he played for the JVs last year and is likely to play significant minutes for the varsity next winter.
“When you coach basketball, you spend so much time in the gym,” said Garry Horne, who works for the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. “I didn’t get to see him play enough. That’s going to change. I want to enjoy his high school career."
At Tamarac, Eric Medved had been juggling coaching with a marriage and four children ranging in age from 3 to 16 on top of serving as the chairman of the Adirondack Amateur Athletic Union region, which serves approximately 10,000 athletes and stretches from Kingston in the south to Utica in the west and Plattsburgh in the north.
He exits with a 49-27 record in four seasons after inheriting a program that was 8-74 in the four seasons before his arrival.
More coaching changes
* Despite support from more than 200 parents and athletes in attendance, boys track coach Don Paretta was dismissed Tuesday by the Shenendehowa Board of Education because he had lost his teaching license over a sexual abuse charge.
The board told those present there was no other choice because of state regulations. The charge occurred in 1992 while Paretta was a New York City gym teacher and was later dismissed, but the New York State Department of Education still rescinded his license in 1996.
His attorney contends the district had been aware at the time of his hiring in 1996 that Paretta, who also coaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, lacked a license. The district says it only found out last week.
* Shenendehowa coach and state girls swimming coordinator Patricia Seligman has been appointed as the athletic director and director of physical education at Harrison. She replaces retiring AD Mike Gansell effective July 1.
Seligman coached the boys and girls varsity teams to a combined record of 238-18-2 and nine Section 2 swim titles.
* Girls basketball coach Mike Reape has resigned but will remain at Staten Island Academy in another capacity. Reape was 61-31 in four seasons in addition to running an AAU team.
Girls lacrosse: Canandaigua embarks on ambitious trip
Canandaigua is off to a 2-0 start this spring. Throw them a parade if they manage to come home from a mid-Atlantic swing with a 5-0 record, because the Braves seemingly are playing everyone except Northwestern, Duke and the University of Maryland.
Fresh off an 18-9 win Monday over Finger Lakes rival Penn Yan -- rallying from an early 5-1 deficit -- Canandaigua is heading south for games against the teams ranked No. 1, 2 and 9 in the nation by LaxPower.com.
Canandaigua plays at No. 1 McDonogh (Md.), which is 5-0, on Saturday, followed by games against No. 2 Alexandria (Va.) St. Stephen's-St. Agnes (10-0 and riding a 56-game winning streak) on Tuesday and Olney (Md.) Our Lady of Good Counsel (8-0) the following day. The three opponents have rolled up a combined 392-97 scoring margin this spring.
"It’s really hard to tell where we are right now after two games,” Coach Sue Ellis told The Daily Messenger. "Our biggest test will come over spring break and we’ll see where we really are."
Junior Abbey Friend led the way vs. Penn Yan with six goals and three assists. Junior Haley Marafioti added four goals.
Baseball: Two perfect games on Long Island already
* Several regions of the state will go the entire season without a perfect game, but Long Island has seen two before the arrival of Easter.
Senior right-hander Kyle Hansen, the brother of Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Craig Hansen, threw his gem last week in the first game of St. Dominic’s doubleheader sweep of St. Mary’s, striking out 13 batters in the 3-0 win to follow up his 11-strikeout showing in a 1-0, nine-inning loss to Kellenberg Memorial.
Cold Spring Harbor junior Kenny Lamb was a 12-0 winner over Friends Academy this week, striking out one batter as CSH improved to 5-0.
* Senior Alexandra Hebert has made the varsity team at Webster Thomas. She was a catcher for the Team USA women's baseball squad that earned the bronze medal at the World Cup games last fall in Japan. Hebert played for the Thomas junior varsity last spring.
Odd and ends
* Orchard Park senior Mike Stefani is the only high school player selected to the USA Men’s Junior Olympic National Volleyball Team that will compete in Pune, India, from July 31 to Aug. 9. The Ohio State recruit led Orchard Park to a 34-0 season as a senior.
* Emily Johnson, a Tamarac freshman who played JV basketball this winter, won her second state title in the Knights of Columbus free-throw shooting competition at West Point. Johnson, who went 23-for-25 to win her age group, previously earned the 12-year-old state and international title by going 24-of-25 two years ago.
* Former Mohonasen running back Brad Carlton had a nice junior year for reasons that go beyond his 1,139 combined rushing and receiving yards for rising Division III power St. John Fisher College in Rochester.
Carlton was a contestant on an episode of The Price Is Right that aired this week and won a dinette set, an expense-paid trip to Carmel, Calif., and $3,222 in cash, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. The total value of his haul: $8,244.
John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschianosports@gmail.com.
